Martial Artist Lily Pagle Earns her BJJ Black Belt at age 61.

This last weekend (Oct 23rd 2010) I had the privilege of awarding Lily Pagle her BJJ Black Belt.

Lily began training with me over a decade ago, at the age of 50. In that time I have watched her game skyrocket; her positional skills, timing, defense, submissions, and understanding of the science of BJJ is top notch. She has also shown herself to be a talented coach, with a solid understanding of how to break down and pass on the game; as well as all the drilling methods that SBGi is known for.

And finally, as a person Lily represents the best of what SBGi can be. Lily is my seventh black belt, and my first female student to achieve that level. At the age of 61 she stepped up in true SBGi tradition and iron-manned all the higher belts in the room. It was an inspiring display of an impressive, and highly technical game. It was an honor to be part of it.

This is what I like to see, we have a 61 year old white belt in our gym and every time I want to complain about being stiff, sore, or out of breath I just think if he can do it so can I. Stories like this make me very happy sounds like she really earned it.

She runs ModCom where I used to train at. She taught me more about judo in my first three weeks there than I learned in four months while training at the university. She's a fantastic coach and grappler, if anyone could get a bb at that age, it's her.